]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2010/09/07/celebrity-photos-angelina-jolie-ben-affleck-lily-allen-cameron-diaz/feed/23Lily Allen ups her game at Warfieldhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/04/05/lily-allen-ups-her-game-at-warfield/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/04/05/lily-allen-ups-her-game-at-warfield/#commentsSun, 05 Apr 2009 08:41:56 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/04/05/lily-allen-ups-her-game-at-warfield/By Jim Harrington Lindsay Lohan didn’t make an appearance to stage another YouTube moment, which would have been a repeat of what happened two nights earlier in Los Angeles. Yet, no surprise celebrity guest was needed for Lily Allen to… Continue Reading →

Lindsay Lohan didn’t make an appearance to stage another YouTube moment, which would have been a repeat of what happened two nights earlier in Los Angeles.

Yet, no surprise celebrity guest was needed for Lily Allen to deliver a vastly more entertaining evening than what fans witnessed during the British pop star’s previous Bay Area gig, at the Fillmore in April 2007.

For sure, the 23-year-old vocalist’s gig on Saturday night at the Warfield in San Francisco was far from perfect – she still needs to work on a few things, such as stage presence – but it was also one that gave fans hope that she might have a longer-than-expected career in front of her.

That definitely comes as a shock to this critic, having reviewed the Fillmore show and reported the finding that Allen didn’t seem to enough talent to survive once her flash in the pan faded. Now, I’m not much of a bicyclist – but I’m definitely backpedaling here.

First off, she’s definitely changed her wardrobe to look the part of a star – going from the baggy jeans and hoodie she wore at the Fillmore to a sexy black camisole top, silver short-shorts and dark fishnet stockings for the Warfield gig.

Then, there’s the set list. She now has two albums to draw from, and the second platter, this year’s “It’s Not Me, It’s You,” is much stronger than her debut, “Alright, Still.” Plus, she’s greatly improved as a singer and has found just the right touch for delivering her usually sassy lyrics over the typically bouncy beats in concert.

New songs such as “Never Gonna Happen,” where Allen justifies a booty call with an old lover by singing “It’s been weeks since I got laid,” and “Who’d Have Known,” in which the singer describes a new relationship as “just the right amount of awkward,” came across as cheeky good fun.

The only occasions when she somewhat lived up to her risqué reputation was during the between-song banter, calling out the “wankers” served her a watered-down her drink, offering to pay for a cigarette and trying to broaden the audience for the older song “Not Big,” her ode to men who don’t measure up in the bedroom.

“Usually, I dedicate this to my ladies,” she said in the introduction to the song. “But since I’m in San Francisco, I’m going to dedicate it to my guys as well.”

She was on such a roll that she performed her entire hour-long main set without playing her biggest hits, and yet it didn’t feel like anything was missing. That set Allen up for a slam-dunk of an encore, which consisted of high-energy renditions of “Smile,” “The Fear” and Britney Spears’ “Womanizer” (the tune that brought Lohan to the stage in L.A.).

Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head opened the show and proved that it has very little going for it besides the best band name in the business. The Seattle quintet’s exuberant mix of disco and New Wave was something one might expect to hear at a high school battle of the bands – and not on the winning side.

The group was so painfully mediocre that even an surprise appearance by the ever-annoying Lohan would’ve been a cause for celebration.

]]>Reporting live from Austin. Here’s a SXSW band that you should know about:

Name: Natalie Portman’s Shaved HeadHometown: Seattle, WA
Website:br />
Sounds like: A monster mash of the B-52’s and the Scissor Sisters
Hear a sample: By visiting www.sonicbids.com/NataliePortmansShavedHead
Local date: April 4 at the Warfield in San Francisco, opening for Lily Allen. Tickets are $27.50. Call 925-685-8497, 408-998-8497, 415-421-8497, 510-625-8497 or visit www.goldenvoice.com.
The skinny: Celebrity gawkers will be disappointed to learn that Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head does not count its namesake starlet, with or without hair, among its members. What this quintet does offer is youthful exuberance, a synth-pop sound that marries disco with New Wave and, perhaps most importantly, the best band name in the biz. The expiration date on the mix should read about 1987, but somehow NPSH’s take manages to still seem fresh.